A fictional board and counter game called “Stars and Comets” appears in many Norton science fiction books. However, only fleeting hints of the rules are revealed. Counters styled as either “stars” or “comets” move across the board taking opponents’ pieces. The rules of movement and capture seem to be very complex allowing hidden strategies and sudden reversals of fortune. It may be that there are both elements of skill and chance. Often, it is not the game being played itself which features, but references to it as an analogy of some plot situation. Its use helps to reinforce the alien culture being portrayed, and also gives the reader a sense of continuity between books portraying differing people and places.
Equally, an interstellar refugee camp turned slum of dubious reputation called the Dipple provides the starting point for a number of planet stories, as the number of desperate young people seeking any escape from its poverty is high.
Star Man’s Son (a.k.a. Daybreak 2250 A.D.), the story of a young man’s quest through a post-apocalyptic landscape, has been retold endlessly, in print and in film, though Norton never received proper recognition for developing this theme.
She also developed the concept of traveling through alternate worlds in The Crossroads of Time. In the Time Trader series, she explored Celtic Europe, and Ice Age America, synthesizing of anthropology, archeology, and hard science fiction, and this series must also be seen as a pivotal exploration of time travel, as a method of fictionally exploring lost cultures. The second book in the Time Trader series, Galactic Derelict, features the use of recovered alien technology, to enable human travel to the stars, and this theme is also very recurrent, with definite features developed by Andre Norton.
High Hallack Library
The High Hallack Library was a facility that Andre Norton was instrumental in organizing and opening. Designed as a research facility for genre writers, and scholars of “popular” literature (the genres of science fiction, fantasy, mystery, western, romance, gothic, or horror), it was located near Norton’s home in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
The facility, named after one of the continents in Norton’s Witch World series, was home to over 10,000 texts, videos and various other media. Attached to the facility were three guest rooms, allowing authors and scholars the chance to stay on-site to facilitate their research goals.
The facility was opened on February 28, 1999, and operated until March 2004. Most of the collection was sold during the closing days of the facility. The declining health of Andre Norton was one of the leading causes of its closing.
1 Dennis Mclellan, “Andre Norton, 93; A Prolific Science Fiction, Fantasy Author,” Obituary, Los Angeles Times, Mar. 19, 2005.
2 Ibid.
3 Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, “Andre Norton Dies at 93; a Master of Science Fiction,” Obituary, New York Times, Mar. 18, 2005.
4 “Andre Norton (1912-2005)”, Locus, April 2005, pp. 5, 65.
5 Ibid.
6 “Locus Index to SF Awards”. Locusmag.com. Retrieved 2011-12-22.
7 “An Interview with Andre Norton”. Theroseandthornezine.com. Retrieved 2011-12-22.
8 Officia SFWA bibliography.
9 Publishers Weekly.
10 Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, “Andre Norton Dies at 93; A Master of Science Fiction,” The New York Times Books, Mar. 18, 2005
11 A. Jakes, “Fictional Soldiers”, pp. 46, 81.
PART 1: SCIENCE FICTION
THE PEOPLE OF THE CRATER (1947)
THE GIFTS OF ASTI (1948)
ALL CATS ARE GRAY (1953)
PLAGUE SHIP (1956)
STAR BORN (1957)
THE TIME TRADERS (1958)
VOODOO PLANET (1959)
STORM OVER WARLOCK (1960)
STAR HUNTER (1961)
THE DEFIANT AGENTS (1962)
KEY OUT OF TIME (1963)
THE PEOPLE OF THE CRATER (1947)
CHAPTER ONE
Through the Blue Haze
Six months and three days after the Peace of Shanghai was signed and the great War of 1965-1970 declared at an end by an exhausted world, a young man huddled on a park bench in New York, staring miserably at the gravel beneath his badly worn shoes. He had been trained to fill the pilot’s seat in the control cabin of a fighting plane and for nothing else. The search for a niche in civilian life had cost him both health and ambition.
A newcomer dropped down on the other end of the bench. The flyer studied him bitterly. He had decent shoes, a warm coat, and that air of satisfaction with the world which is the result of economic security. Although he was well into middle age, the man had a compact grace of movement and an air of alertness.
“Aren’t you Captain Garin Featherstone?”
Startled, the flyer nodded dumbly.
From a plump billfold the man drew a clipping and waved it toward his seat mate. Two years before Captain Garin Featherstone of the United Democratic Forces had led a perilous bombing raid into the wilds of Siberia to wipe out the vast expeditionary army secretly gathering there. It had been a spectacular affair and had brought the survivors some fleeting fame.
“You’re the sort of chap I’ve been looking for,” the stranger folded the clipping again, “a flyer with courage, initiative and brains. The man who led that raid is worth investing in.”
“What’s the proposition?” asked Featherstone wearily. He no longer believed in luck.
“I’m Gregory Farson,” the other returned as if that should answer the question.
“The Antarctic man!”
“Just so. As you have probably heard, I was halted on the eve of my last expedition by the sudden spread of war to this country. Now I am preparing to sail south again.”
“But I don’t see—”
“How you can help me? Very simple, Captain Featherstone. I need pilots. Unfortunately the war has disposed of most of them. I’m lucky to contact one such as yourself—”
And it was as simple as that. But Garin didn’t really believe that it was more than a dream until they touched the glacial shores of the polar continent some months later. As they brought ashore the three large planes he began to wonder at the driving motive behind Farson’s vague plans.
When the supply ship sailed, not to return for a year, Farson called them together. Three of the company were pilots, all war veterans, and two were engineers who spent most of their waking hours engrossed in the maps Farson produced.
“Tomorrow,”